How to help your consumers find pleasure again

Late last year, Adam Grant declared the pandemic “the boring apocalypse” in The New York Times. Grant says that our constant exposure to news about COVID and sometimes actual exposure to the virus have increased the collective ennui. Many of us are having trouble drumming up enough effs to give. As Grant would say, we’re languishing. (If your marketing is also languishing, check out our guide for how to turn it around and start to flourish.) 

How to stop feeling so blah and unbothered? 

We think it’s time to spice things up and focus on food again. This isn’t specifically about sourdough starter (although it could be), it’s about giving rise to your wellbeing by finding simple pleasures in food, as author Mark Schatzker suggests in his new book The End of Craving. Also, according to our resident dietitian Nishta Saxena, how we eat can tell us a lot about our overall wellbeing. 

Whether your brand is kitchen-adjacent or far from food, learn about how the eating trends of 2022 will affect both your consumers and your marketing.

 

Wellbeing from around the web

 EatingWell’s Top 10 Food & Nutrition Trends for 2022

The food trends for 2022 go well beyond what people like eating to include wellbeing benefits for people—and the earth. Find out why many people are looking to the sea for nutrition and how cannabis and sustainability play into this year’s trends to watch.

The takeaway: Waste-free cooking, plant-based foods and sustainable grains all demonstrate consumers’ growing concern about the earth, something all wellbeing brands can—and should—tap into. Foods that affect brain health and increased interest in cannabis show a consciousness among consumers that there’s a connection between what we put in our bodies and how it affects our minds.

 

 

 

What a raft of CPG rebrands portend for marketer priorities in 2022

This article outlines the updates that M&M’s, Anheuser-Busch and Coca-Cola are making to their brands this year and how they’re not simply reactions to the pandemic, they’re about drawing connections between each brand’s purpose and its visual identity.

The takeaway: We know that consumers want to buy from brands whose values are aligned with their own, but striking the right balance is about more than just updated visuals. Whether you sell candy or workout gear, “brand touch ups must be paired with tangible efforts that reinforce and communicate brand values—from sustainability to equity and inclusion—to consumers. Simply put, the refresh can’t stop at the logo.”

 

 

 

MarketWell Voices

How does eating for pleasure affect nutrition? We asked Felicity registered dietitian Nishta Saxena, for her take on a new book that sparked our interest. The End of Craving by Toronto author Mark Schatzer is about how “only by restoring the relationship between nutrition and the essential joy of eating can we hope to lead longer and happier lives.”

“After everything that we’ve all been through and the way the world is right now, we all need to have something that makes us feel better and there’s nothing wrong with pleasure.”
– Nishta Saxena

What might this movement mean for wellbeing marketers? Read on to hear Nishta share her expertise and thoughts. Read the full interview.

 

Feeling inspired?